- Joined
- Jul 28, 2009
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- British English
- Home Country
- UK
- Current Location
- UK
I taught my first class with a child on Friday. He is a very enthusiastic, reasonably well-behaved 8-year-old and I think the class went OK, considering I've never taught a kid before.
He has been doing the present simple at school and had 3 different verbs written out as positive, negative and interrogative. The first 2 verbs were much as I expected: to be (which he has trouble with); and to wear (which appeared to have been picked at random but he uses well).
The third was a surprise. He has been taught "to have got" instead of "to have". He had the whole lot written out in full and, as with all verbs learnt here, had memorised them. As it was the first class, I wanted to help to reinforce what he was doing at school, so I felt somewhat obligated to go with it. We played a game using plastic fruit and vegetables where I alternately asked and answered "Have you got an apple?", "I have got 3 apples" etc. The problem I found was that I automatically, over and over again, found myself saying "Do you have 3 apples?" or "I have 5 potatoes" etc. I find the use of "have got" very odd.
Has anyone else come across the use of "have got" being used in place of "have" with elementary classes? The only reason I can think of that they use it is because in the interrogative, they don't have to use the auxiliary "do/does". They can use the same words as in the positive, just in a different order.
I am tempted to talk to his parents about it and explain that I believe that "to have" would be much more useful, not to mention simpler for him to learn.
Any opinions gratefully received. Thanks.
He has been doing the present simple at school and had 3 different verbs written out as positive, negative and interrogative. The first 2 verbs were much as I expected: to be (which he has trouble with); and to wear (which appeared to have been picked at random but he uses well).
The third was a surprise. He has been taught "to have got" instead of "to have". He had the whole lot written out in full and, as with all verbs learnt here, had memorised them. As it was the first class, I wanted to help to reinforce what he was doing at school, so I felt somewhat obligated to go with it. We played a game using plastic fruit and vegetables where I alternately asked and answered "Have you got an apple?", "I have got 3 apples" etc. The problem I found was that I automatically, over and over again, found myself saying "Do you have 3 apples?" or "I have 5 potatoes" etc. I find the use of "have got" very odd.
Has anyone else come across the use of "have got" being used in place of "have" with elementary classes? The only reason I can think of that they use it is because in the interrogative, they don't have to use the auxiliary "do/does". They can use the same words as in the positive, just in a different order.
I am tempted to talk to his parents about it and explain that I believe that "to have" would be much more useful, not to mention simpler for him to learn.
Any opinions gratefully received. Thanks.